ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on Judges Appointment on Thursday summoned Babar Sattar and Tariq Jahangiri – the two prominent lawyers nominated for the post of additional judge of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), on December 21.

On December 4, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) – the commission for the appointment of Supreme Court and High Court Judges in the country – headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, approved the nomination of Sattar and Jahangiri, for appointment as IHC judges.

The six-member parliamentary committee held a meeting and decided to summon both Sattar and Jahangiri on December 21.

Under the law, six out of eight votes are required for rejecting a nominee.

Recently, the parliamentary panel amended its rules to summon candidates for interview.

Earlier, three IHC additional judges were summoned and they appeared before the committee.

The members of the parliamentary panel are senators Farooq H Naek from the PPP, Raja Pervez Ashraf of the PPP, Javed Abbasi from the PML-N, Rana Sanaullah of the PML-N, Azam Swati of the ruling PTI, Ali Mohammad Khan of PTI, Mohammad Asim Nazeer from PTI, and Sarfraz Bugti of BAP.

Babar Sattar is a renowned legal analyst and has been known as a vocal lawyer. He was part of Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s legal team, which had challenged the presidential reference.

Jahangiri was the advocate general of Islamabad in 2017-18. He also worked as deputy attorney general for Pakistan from 2011 to 2013 and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi/ Islamabad Region deputy prosecutor general from 2009 to 2010.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020